Of Tennis and Ice Prince

Chapter 22: It's A Tank. It's An Onigiri. It's Duke.

It was finally Sora's turn to play—as soon as her name was called, Sora stood up with a racket in her hand and walked into the tennis courts, receiving cheers from the second stringers.

"Good luck, Sora." Kazuya said, with a slightly worried face. "Don't push yourself too hard, your tennis career doesn't depend entirely on this match."

"I know." Sora grinned. "But I'd rather win than not, y'know?"

She walked down and met Duke at the net. The difference in figure was already intimidating; he was at least three heads taller than her and at least three times as wide; when they shook hands, Sora's hand was completely enveloped by his big hand.

"Let's have a good match, kiddo." Duke said, putting on a rather fatherly, warm smile. "I'm warning you beforehand, I won't go down so easily."

"Likewise, Watanabe-san."

The two went to their respective sides, with Sora serving the first game. Tension grew thicker as Sora bounced the ball on the ground, getting in a position to serve the first ball of the game. People took a big gulp in anticipation of the first serve of the match.

'First impression is always important.' Sora thought as she bounced the ball. 'I can't let him belittle me more than he already does now.'

Sora tossed the ball up—and threw off his timing by contacting the ball before it even got to the apex. Despite having such built, Duke was able to reach the ball quickly, but ended up missing the baseline just a bit, giving Sora the first point in the match.

'As expected of a first stringer…!' Sora smiled nervously, breaking a cold sweat. 'And plus that shot looked heavy as heck.'

"15-love!" The referee announced. Sora moved to the ad side of the court and started bouncing the ball again, calculating her next move. To be told, she already knew—that she was no match for this big dude standing on the other side of the net. In terms of strength, stamina, and experience, she was no match for him. However, she was at upper hand in a few areas;

'Sora's technique and mental should be much better than his. No—much better than anyone in the first-string. And perhaps agility when she's not drained… but her stamina and physical strength are what drags her down so much compared to the other guys.' Kazuya thought as he observed Sora, who seemed more concentrated than ever.

She tossed the ball and hit a spin serve—the one that she had mastered ever since she started finding her own playstyle. It curved inwards, similarly to a top spin serve, and as it hit the ground it would take a sharp turn, so sharp that the angle was almost ninety degrees.

"There it is!" Marui exclaimed as the ball went out of Duke's reach. "Man that serve is just so hard to return!"

"30-Love!"

"Ohoho, that was quite a sharp turn!" Duke smiled rather warmly and said. "I guess I should really start returning those, huh?"

At that, Sora's brows furrowed. Did he imply that he wasn't trying for the last two serves?

"Hmph." Sora scoffed to herself and stood at the deuce side once again—this time, Duke was standing closer to the service box. 'I'll serve it flat to your body then.'

She tossed the ball up and served—with a great speed, the ball travelled to the service box. However, Duke was able to take the ball right with the gut of his racket and return it with ease. Sora ran chased after the ball and received it.

'Holy sh—' She was able to barely return it; due to the incredible power, she couldn't control the ball and her shot ended up going way out. She clenched her fists in order to get her senses back; her hand was numbing and throbbing. Her gaze left her hands and settled on the giant twice her size. She gulped and cracked a nervous smile as she tried to shake off the numbing feeling in her fist. 'Well, it's not like I expected any less.'

"It's only the third point of the game but I can already see the table turning. How lame." The silver-haired boy, Akutsu, said rather bluntly.

"What did you say—!" Offended by a guy like Akutsu insulting his fellow senpai, Akaya shot out of his seat.

"It's still somewhat true." Kazuya admitted and Akaya looked at him in curiosity. "And Sora is well aware of that as well. Duke is going to be at upper hand for quite a while."

"Th-Then what's he going to do?" Marui exclaimed.

"I honestly have no clue." Kazuya sighed. "The gap in physique is way too far to be bridged by sheer talent. No matter how fast or skilled Sora is, Duke can simply overpower it. Although…"

He trailed off.

"…I would like to believe in a miracle."

'Well he seems a bit… out of shape. Sora thought, eyeing his round, massive belly with the corner of her eye. 'Maybe I could tire him out? His stamina can't be that ridiculous, right?'

She served, this time towards a corner, and he once again returned it with a powerful shot. Instead of trying to fully return his shot, Sora simply dropped her racket down and blocked the ball using the gut of her racket as a reflective force. The ball's speed decreased a little and traveled to the far corner from where Duke was standing.

"Oho. Impressive." Duke smiled and chased after the ball. The rally continued for a while and all Sora did was block the ball from passing by her.

"Game, Watanabe! 1 game to 0!"

Sora gritted her teeth. She couldn't find a good opening in his style except that it was way too simple, but too powerful for her to break. They switched sides for Duke to start serving. While walking over to the other side, Sora kept on thinking.

'What's effective against a tank like him? Just what? And on top of being tanky, he's speedy too. What the hell. That's like Nii-san except with a big round beer belly.'

She stood at the baseline and got ready for Duke to serve. She took a big gulp. His serve might as well kill a small dog. With a big bang, the ball came to contact with the racket's gut and flew towards Sora's forehand.

'Well, thanks for aiming it so that I can at least try receiving.' Sora scoffed. She put her racket in place and read the ball's trajectory. She carefully dropped her knees and gently blocked the ball back, moving her racket back along with the ball for an instant and pushing it over the net. A clean return.

'This is like Nii-san's serve in a way. Good thing I practiced with him before.' Sora let out a small sigh after making sure that the ball landed right in the corner, out of Duke's reach. She could tell that he had not been anticipating her to return his heavy serve. 'But damn, that was still heavy.' She frowned a bit, rolling her wrists around a little to stretch out her stiffened muscle.

"That's the first time I've ever seen a tiny guy like you return my serve. Good job."

"Ahaha, thanks!" Sora said, feeling slightly aloof from being praised by a guy from the first-string.

"But that won't be enough to beat me, kiddo." Duke said, grinning and rotating his shoulder. "You'd have to start getting better, or else you won't win another point from me until you lose."

Sora frowned and got ready to receive instead of making a rebuttal. Duke tossed the ball up—and swung his racket as hard as he could.

'Uh-oh.' Sora quickly chased down the ball that was travelling at a ridiculous speed and managed to place the racket at the contact point. 'Crap…!' Notwithstanding her flawless form and supportive footing, the ball blew away the racket along with Sora. Sora ended up landing on her back, the momentum causing her to slide away quite the distance.

"Sora-senpai!" Marui and Akaya yelped. They knew from what they saw and heard—that the shot itself was destructive enough to fracture a few bones at least.

"Oh my." Duke shrugged his shoulders.

"Wait." Sora stood up, her arms and legs covered in dirt. "I returned it."

"Huh?"

When everyone looked, the ball was right under the net—by Duke's side.

"I see…" Shiraishi observed. "She used her entire bodyweight to force the ball back."

"Alright. This one's my point." Sora said, getting ready at the baseline once again. "Bring it, you onigiri."

LOL so I've been away for like a million years because school and work and stress and life. Yeah.

I really can't say if I'll be updating regularly but I'll make sure to finish up the story... (I promise)

Thanks for reading as usual, leave reviews to tell me how your life is going and whatnot and have a great December guys. Christmas is fucking awesome.

Love,

Scherzovivace